A global slime-making craze sparked by social media has prompted safety concerns over the use of the cleaning product borax.

Also known as sodium borate, borax has a range of household uses including as an insecticide, a stain remover and a deodoriser. It is also a pivotal ingredient of home-made slime, a perennial art or science project in which it is mixed with water, glue and food colouring.

Slime has recently undergone a global resurgence, with Google searches climbing steadily in the past 12 months and accelerating this year.

In February, Elmer’s Glue said an increase in sales in the US in the second half of 2016 were “due in large part to slime mania” and, in March, Today reported that schools around the US had banned slime for being “too distracting” and messy.

puppy (@jjonganonymous)

lmao my step sister just got yelled at for using all the borax to make her slime eisidksoixndmdmdmd

In the long term, it may disrupt hormones and harm the male reproductive system, with chronic exposure to high doses of borax linked to a greater risk of decreased sperm count and libido.

Kate Copping of Melbourne told Guardian Australia her 10-year-old daughter, Daisy, started making slime about six months ago after having come across it on YouTube.

“She has been making it nonstop. We are going to buy glue constantly.”

Copping said borax was “kind of like a poison” but said nothing had worked so well to produce high-quality slime.

“We tried a few different things. In the end I gave in and bought the borax.”

Copping said the craze was popular among Daisy’s school friends but she realised it was a worldwide phenomenon only after she vented her frustration with the messy fad on Facebook.

“I’ve got a friend in Scotland who’s like ‘I’m so sick of it’, friends in the US saying the same thing – it’s going crazy everywhere,” she said. “I’ve heard at some schools, kids are making it and selling it in the playground.”

Anecdotal reports suggested that several branches of the Australian hardware store Bunnings had sold out of borax, which retails for A$9.40 for a 1kg tub.

Its Cairns store held a “slime-making DIY workshop” with “Naomi in aisle 38” in early April describing mixing glue and borax as “a great way to keep the kids entertained”.

A spokeswoman for Bunnings said it was against company policy to comment on product sales.

The craze has been facilitated by social media, with 4.2m results for “slime tutorial” on YouTube. One video has been viewed 10.1m times since it was posted on YouTube on 4 March.

There are 2.8m posts hashtagged #slime on Instagram, and several dedicated accounts – @slimequeeens’ “kinda satisfying slime videos” have been followed by 864,000 people since its first post in June. It also sells slime through an online marketplace.

A 15-year-old slime creator followed by 524,000 people told New York Magazine’s Select All in April that she spent more than 20 hours a week making slime, in between school and homework: “The only reason I sell slime is so I can make more slime.”